Content

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Axe Maintenance and Repair Part 4: Grinding an Axe

In this part of the video I discuss some more aggressive techniques for getting a sharp axe. In particular I talk about filing the bit of an axe.

Part 4 of 5:

Ordinarily, you would want to have the axe clamped securely before filing the bit. For a simple way to do that, you can see my post here. In the video I simply had it wedged. All I did was wedge the poll on the back of the tree. If you need to, you can make a small notch in the tree for that purpose.

Filing and even sharpening removes metal from the head. If you look at old axes, quite a bit of material has been removed over time. You also see that older bits have been filed to be more curved. That is typically because the edges are easier to chip, and that is the part of the head most often repaired.

In the above pictures you see two identical True Temper Kelly Perfect Dayton pattern axes. One of them is in mint condition, while the other has seen use. Notice the amount of metal that has been removed.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Wood Trekker

I love the outdoors. I was born and raised in Bulgaria, but currently live in the US. I don’t know much about the woods, but I’m happy to share the little that I do know. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me at gilmore.ross@gmail.com.